Olympia 2022 – ski jumping: Germany wins bronze in team crime

The bronze medal was only decided with the last athletes in freezing temperatures below minus 20 degrees. Before final jumper Karl Geiger, the DSV team was still in fourth place, but had come closer to Norway thanks to a strong final jump by Markus Eisenbichler on 139.5 meters.

Geiger made the race to catch up to the bronze medal perfect with a jump on 128 meters, because after him large hill Olympic champion Marius Lindvik failed and jumped 1.5 meters shorter. This left only fourth place for the Norwegians, who were also favorites.

“It’s so cool, it was incredibly close,” said the overjoyed violinist, who two days ago finished third in the individual large hill and will now leave Beijing with two bronze medals.

Olympics – ski jumping

Olympic unlucky Sorschag seriously injured in a fall

YESTERDAY AT 13:03

However, after his jump in the final, the ski flying world champion wasn’t sure if the team medal was actually going to work out. “I was afraid it wasn’t enough. When Lindvik jumped, I just thought ‘please, please, please, please, please’. Now I’m really happy because it was really important for the team,” said Geiger.

139.5 meters! Eisenbichler has the best jump in the entire team competition

Eisenbichler: “I wanted this fucking medal”

After the first round, Germany was ten points behind Norway.

After a weaker first jump by Constantin Schmid, the team even fell back to sixth place at the beginning of the final round. However, Leyhe brought the team back within striking distance of the Norwegians with a jump to 129 meters.

Eisenbichler was visibly relieved after the competition and his strong performance. “I really wanted to have the fucking medal,” said the Siegsdorfer on “ARD” and added: “Now I’ve finally brought a toy for the little one.” For the six-time world champion, it is the first Olympic medal of his career.

National coach Stefan Horngacher was “totally happy and happy. It was on a knife’s edge.”

For Eisenbichler, this bronze medal also has a special history. Four years ago he was not nominated for the team by then national coach Werner Schuster in PyeongChang. Without him, Geiger, Leyhe, Richard Freitag and Andreas Wellinger took silver.

“It means everything to us!” Geiger extremely happy with bronze

Werner Schuster is happy with Eisenbichler: “I treat you to the medal”

The current Eurosport expert Schuster was therefore particularly happy with the 30-year-old: “Eisei, I’ll treat you to the medal. ‘I took the medal away from you,’ you said to me four years ago. Now you’ve won it with your great performance. Bravo! “

In the first round, Eisenbichler managed to jump 136 meters, the longest in the German team. Schmid had placed world champion Germany in fourth place with a jump of 126.5 m, which Stephan Leyhe (127.5), Eisenbichler and finally Geiger defended. However, the man from Oberstdorf had very bad wind conditions on his first jump and therefore only jumped 121 meters.

Also Eurosport expert Martin Schmitt Eisenbichler praised: “As national coach, I would have let Markus Eisenbichler start right away to be up close and personal in the competition. But Eisei did full justice to his role and he put the team in position with his great second jump.”

Schmitt analyzes team jumping: “You should kiss his feet there”

Schmitt: Maybe Eisenbichler’s last Olympic medal

From the point of view of the 2002 team Olympic champion, this medal could mean something else for the six-time world champion, apart from the “little trauma” from PyeongChang. “I don’t know if he will still be jumping in four years. Probably not. It may be that these were his last Olympic Games, his last medals,” explained Schmitt.

Meanwhile, host China was eliminated as expected after the first round. The four jumpers together collected just 115.0 points and thus less than the top jumpers in one jump. The Czech Republic (279.5) and the USA (261.0) also missed the final of the top eight nations.

Being there is everything: “Four Chinese are a top jumper”

For the DSV-Adler, on the other hand, an Olympic roller coaster of emotions ended with a climax. The individual competition on the normal hill was a disaster with 15th place for Geiger and Schmid in 11th place as the best German, the mixed team competition with the disqualification of the individual runner-up Katharina Althaus and ninth place was a farce.

First Geiger’s unexpected bronze medal on the large hill on Saturday brought the turning point.

Big emotions! Team Germany celebrates bronze on the podium